Surgical treatment of intrahepatic bile duct stones

  Hepatobiliary stones have complex conditions, high rates of postoperative residual stones, recurrence and complications, and can induce cholangiocarcinoma, and postoperative residual hepatobiliary stones are a challenge for surgical treatment. In our hospital, 160 patients with hepatobiliary stones were admitted in 10 years, and all 160 patients underwent partial hepatectomy, as reported below: Clinical data 1. The distribution of stones: 96 cases (60%) were left hepatic bile duct stones, 35 cases (21.88%) were right hepatic bile duct stones, 24 cases (15%) were left and right hepatic bile duct stones; 129 cases (80.63%) were combined with extrahepatic bile duct stones. The number of emergency admissions was 96; with abdominal pain and fever was 123, fever was 87 and jaundice was 92; with a history of biliary tract surgery was 26. All of them were clearly diagnosed by ultrasound, CT, MRI and other examinations.  2. Treatment: Different surgeries were performed according to the degree of liver lesions, stone distribution and bile duct stenosis. There were 56 cases (35%) of left outer lobectomy, 29 cases (18.13%) of left hemicolectomy, 11 cases (6.88%) of hepatic square lobectomy, 13 cases (8.13%) of right anterior lobectomy, 22 cases (13.75%) of right posterior lobectomy, 5 cases (3.2%) of right hemicolectomy, 24 cases (15%) of bilateral multi-segment hepatectomy; among them, 69 cases (43.13%) were treated with additional bile-intestinal drainage. Among them, 69 cases (43.13%) had additional internal bile and intestinal drainage and 6 cases had lithotripsy via hepatic parenchymal resection.  Results The operation in this group was smooth and there were no fatal cases. The average intraoperative blood loss was 190(100-600)mL, of which 36 cases were transfused with blood volume of 300mL-900mL. 8 cases of incisional infection and 6 cases of subcutaneous fat liquefaction were cured by non-operative treatment. 160 cases were examined by imaging after surgery, and 22 cases had residual stones, with a residual stone rate of 13.75%. After 1-10 years of follow-up, 10 cases were reoperated, and the reoperation rate was 6.25%.  The treatment of hepatic bile duct stones is an important topic in hepatobiliary surgery. Because of the extent of stone distribution in the intrahepatic bile duct, the number of stones, the accompanying hepatic bile duct and liver lesions, the timing of surgery, such as surgery in the acute or chronic phase, the number of previous surgeries, etc., all affect the choice of surgical approach and the performance of surgery, so surgery is often highly individualized with different patients, and should be performed with the type of pathology found during surgery. The type of pathology found in the surgery should be selected according to the type of surgery or a combination of several surgeries. With the development of ultrasound, CT, MRI and other imaging methods and the use of fiberoptic cholangioscopy, it is important to provide a reference for the development of a reasonable surgical plan. The main objectives of surgery should be to: ① remove as many stones as possible; ② remove the lesion; ③ correct the bile duct lesion; ④ establish a smooth bile drainage; ⑤ create conditions for post-operative adjuvant therapy.  2. The value of hepatic resection Lobectomy for hepatic bile duct stones aims to remove the lesions, to return the normal physiological environment of the hepatobiliary system, to interrupt the development of hepatic bile duct stone disease, and to achieve the goal of cure. In recent years, with the improvement of diagnosis, more early cases of intrahepatic bile duct stones have been diagnosed, and more limited lesions in the liver are seen, while less diffuse chronic destructive lesions are seen, and clinical symptoms are also less severe; therefore, for patients with hepatobiliary stones, Huang advocates the idea of systematic and regular hepatic segmental resection, which is accepted by the majority of scholars, and surgical treatment not only solves the hepatobiliary stones and strictures at one time, but also completely removes the lesions and eliminates the The surgical treatment not only solves the hepatobiliary stones and strictures in one go, but also completely removes the lesions and gets rid of the good part of bile duct cancer, and even removes the liver tissues that have become cancerous, which achieves the purpose of recurrence prevention and treatment. However, the timing of surgery depends on the degree of liver damage and the extent of bile duct stones, which needs to be further discussed.  The efficacy of the treatment of intrahepatic bile duct stones depends first and foremost on the mastery of its surgical indications. The main indications for hepatic resection for intrahepatic bile duct stones are: (1) the patient’s liver reserve function and systemic condition can tolerate lobectomy; (2) the lesion is confined to a segment, lobe or half of the liver and difficult to remove; (3) there is bile duct stenosis in a segment or lobe of the liver and it is difficult to remove the obstruction; (4) there is significant liver atrophy and fibrosis in the corresponding segment or lobe of the liver; (5) there is a congenital lesion of the bile duct (such as Caroli’s disease ⑤ combined with congenital lesions of bile ducts (such as Caroli disease), uncontrollable biliary hemorrhage, extrahepatic bile duct phlegm or biliary liver abscess; ⑥ suspected intrahepatic bile duct carcinoma.  3, the role of cholangioscopy in hepatobiliary stone surgery In the traditional surgical methods to explore the common bile duct and treatment of hepatobiliary stones still have a high residual stone rate after surgery, a group of foreign statistics show that the residual stone rate after surgery is 5%-30%, if the intraoperative application of fiberoptic cholangioscopy to remove the stone, the residual stone rate can be reduced to 0-2.8% In clinical practice, although the residual stone rate (including after intraoperative application of fiberoptic cholangioscopy to remove the stone) In clinical practice, although the residual stone rate (including after intraoperative fiberoptic choledochoscopy) varies depending on the technical experience of the surgeon, the distribution of intrahepatic stones, the stenosis or malformation of the bile ducts, and the sophistication of the fiberoptic choledochoscope, the role of the fiberoptic choledochoscope in hepatobiliary stone surgery is irreplaceable, i.e., the fiberoptic choledochoscope can observe the whole intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts under clear vision, and clarify the site, nature, size, number and bile duct pathology of the stones; for extrahepatic In addition, timely biopsy of suspicious bile duct lesions with fiberoptic cholangioscope can avoid missing tumors and other biliary tract diseases, change the blindness of stone extraction with instruments, significantly reduce the rate of residual stones, and improve the treatment effect. With traditional instruments and fiberoptic choledochoscope as the pioneer, stones in intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts can be removed basically, but traditional instruments cannot be bent at will, nor can they be illuminated to look directly into the intrahepatic bile ducts, and it is difficult for the fiberoptic choledochoscope to enter the terminal bile ducts or bile ducts with tubular stenosis and malformation whose diameter is smaller than fiberoptic choledochoscope grade III or above. Therefore, although fiberoptic cholangioscopy is applied, it still has obvious blind spots for the peripheral type (stones located in grade III hepatic duct and above branches) and the whole type (referring to the central and peripheral types of stones located in grade I-II hepatic duct) of hepatic bile duct stones; the role of fiberoptic cholangioscopy has some limitations.  In conclusion, hepatectomy is obviously superior to other procedures, and the application of intraoperative fiberoptic choledochoscopy (a new type of electronic choledochoscope is currently acquired in our hospital) is of great value to reduce the rate of residual stones after hepatobiliary stone surgery.